iPad Air 2 supplies will be limited, no 21-inch Retina iMac until Q3 2015

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Photo: Apple
Photo: Apple

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is one of the most reliable analysts out there when it comes to predicting upcoming Apple products.

Ahead of tomorrow’s Apple media event he’s tapped whatever sources he has, to unleash a new research note to clients about what it is that they (and Apple fans in general) should be expecting.

First up, Kuo claims that while Apple will indeed introduce the expected iPad Air 2, quantities of the tablet will be quite limited early on, with between 7-9 million units available at first. (By comparison last year’s iPad Air shipped with 12 million units.)

The reason, he suggests, relates to “poor yield rate of anti-reflective coating cover lens.”

Also noted by Kuo is that although Apple certainly does plan to announce iMacs with Retina display, at first only the 27-inch models will be available. These will ship in 2014, while 21-inch iMac owners (which includes your humble writer) will have to wait until the second half of 2015.

The reason for the delay between the two models is reportedly due to the challenge of developing two separate, differently-sized high resolution panels simultaneously.

Kuo additionally confirms that there won’t be any new MacBooks come October 16, which puts paid to hopes about the 12-inch Retina MacBook Air, and that there won’t be a significant update to the iPad mini either — in part because Apple’s busy ploughing everything its got into the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

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